Fabrication of polymer waveguides by a replication method

We have developed a soft-lithography method to replicate polymer waveguides. In this method, the waveguides are produced by a two-step molding process where a master mold is first formed on a negative-tone photoresist and subsequently transferred to a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold; a PDMS silicone rubber mold is then used as a stamp to transfer the final waveguide pattern onto an UV cure epoxy. Initial results show good pattern transferring in physical shape. The optical performance is measured based on the propagation loss. In our design, the loss was measured at 0.28 dB/cm for 1.3 microm and 0.26 dB/cm for 1.55 microm.